In Silico Modeling and Immunoinformatics Probing Disclose the Epitope Based PeptideVaccine Against Zika Virus Envelope Glycoprotein

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an aedes mosquito borne pathogen belonging to the member of flaviviridae subgroup is the causative agent of an emerging disease called Zika fever, known as a benign infection usually presenting as influenza like illness with cutaneous rash. Due to recent epidemic outbreaks it is realized as a major health risk which need enhanced surveillance, but no attempt has been made to design an epitope based peptide vaccine against Zika virus. Viral envelope proteins are derived from host cell membrane proteins with some viral glycoproteins and are used to cover their protective protein capsid, help the viruses to enter host cells and help them to avoid the host immune response. In this study, amino acid sequence of ZIKV envelope glycoprotein was obtained from a protein database and examined with in silico approaches to determine the most immunogenic epitopes for B cell and T cell which could induce humoral as well as cell mediated immune response. Both the linear and conformational epitopes for B cell were predicted by immunoinformatics tools housed in IEDB resources. The peptide sequence DAHAKRQTVVVLGSQEGAV from position 121 and peptide sequence from 117-137 amino acids were predicted as most potential B cell linear and conformational epitopes respectively. Epitopes for CD4+ and CD8+ T cell were also predicted by using tools within IEDB resource and peptide sequence MMLELDPPF from position 250-258 amino acids was predicted as most immunogenic CD8+ T cell epitope with immune response evoking ability prediction score (I pMHC) of 0.09139 and conservancy of 52.17%. The innate immune response for ZIKV envelope glycoprotein was determined by interferon (IFN)-gamma effectuation and mimicking capacity by immunoinformatics and molecular docking study respectively. However, this is an introductory approach to design an epitope based peptide vaccine against Zika virus; we hope this model will be very much helpful in designing and predicting novel vaccine candidate.

Rational design of peptide vaccines against the Zika virus through sequence descriptors: Techniques and Problems

“…The bioinformatic analysis of the kind mentioned here require voluminous data, which unfortunately are not available in this instance, primarily because the scientific community had been caught unawares, although some analyses have been done with limited data [28,29]. However, paucity of data is a blight in another instance where the viral causes are well documented: human papillomavirus.…”

Immunoinformatics Predication and Modelling of a Cocktail of B- and T-cells Epitopes from Envelope Glycoprotein and Nucleocapsid Proteins of Sin Nombre Virus

“…The inclusion of T-cell epitopes in the vaccine development induces a strong and long lasting immune response and antigenic drift where antigen can easily escape the antibody memory response [19,22]. While CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells generally recognize intracellular peptides displayed by HLA class I molecules, CD4+ T-helper cells generally recognize peptides from the extracellular space, displayed by HLA class II molecules (CD4+ T-cell epitopes) [22].…”

“…The characteristic features of B cell epitopes are hydrophilicity and accessibility [19]. Therefore, the classical propensity scale methods and hidden Markov model programmed softwares were used from the IEDB (http://www.iedb.org/) analysis resource for the following aspects [33].…”

“…Moreover, There are many studies used immunoinformatics-based approaches for designing EVs for different infectious and serious diseases [29,30]. In general, any active vaccine candidate must have to contain, at least, two antigenic epitopes; one to induce specific B cell or CTL responses while other induce specific Th cell response [19]. In this study, we aim to analyze envelope glycoprotein and nucleocapsid of SNV by using immunoinformatics tools housed in IEDB resources; in order to determine the most conserved and immunogenic epitopes for B cell and T cell which could trigger humoral as well as cell mediated immune response.…”

Immunogenicity Prediction by VaxiJen: A Ten Year Overview

“…The most investigated is the envelope glycoprotein protein. Several B-and T-cell epitopes have been identified by immunoinformatic tools (including VaxiJen) [88][89][90][91], but have not been tested experimentally. Dar et al [92] analyzed 54 full length ZIKV polyprotein sequences identifying 23 HLA class I and 48 HLA class II binders.…”